Thursday, November 14, 2013

Pro Wrestling in November of 2010 plus 1997 wrestling reviews from 1997

Setting the Table – An incomplete list of champions at
the start of the period covered. This is part of the problem with wanting to
cover the industry of professional wrestling- the landscape is a virtual
alphabet soup of competing promotions. While there is some crossover –gone are
the days of talent sharing with the major companies.

ROH Tag Team Champions- The Kings of Wrestling (Chris
Hero and Claudio Castagnoli)

PWG World Champion – Claudio Castagnoli

Dragongate USA Open The Freedom Gate Championship
– BxB Hulk

AAA World Heavyweight Champion- Dr. Wagner

CMLL World Champion – Ultimo Guerrero

IWGP Heavyweight Champion – Satoshi Kojima

All Japan
Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion – Suwama

As we start our journey WWE is playing out the Nexus
storyline. The Nexus is a heel stable of young grapplers headed by Wade Barrett
trying to make an impression of the company by force and intimidation. In WWE
power is symbolized by a laptop – during Monday night raw the laptop would
email announcer Michael Cole and he would make pronouncements for the anonymous
Raw GM. Meanwhile in Orlando a group of old codgers hijack the Southern
promotion while doting on the charismatic enigma. Immortal a heel stable run by
Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff help Jeff Hardy win the TNA title at their October
PPV Bound For Glory.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 (THQ)

I am finally tired of the franchise. I enjoyed the game a
couple of days- but the modern playground is online gameplay. That is impossible
to enjoy with this game that is so laggy online that I only ventured online a
few times – mostly to download created wrestlers by other players. This is not
a review of the game- just my own thoughts about it. I simply did not play the
game enough to write a review- which is saying something- I used to be hooked
on wrestling videogames- playing hour long matches on Power Pro Wrestling on
PSX and loving it, buying an N64 so I could play WCW vs N.W.O. World Tour,
hosting Smackdown gaming tournaments at Matt Malloys and more. Now I regret not
selling this game earlier to get more credit for it in trade. It is not a
horrible game – it is actually pretty good and if this were judged by it’s
gameplay offline it would be a keeper.

November 16, 2010

Just finished
re-watching Old School Raw- I am happy I was wrong about many aspects of this
show-I am glad the legends did not get their usual humiliation and I was glad
to see JR on the show- this was a great night for Old School fans and also they
did a good job of pushing the PPV and the importance of the Main event- most episodes of Raw are usually disposable- but for the first time
since Raw XV - a whole episode should be put out on DVD or Blu-Ray. Roddy Piper
did an excellent job with his promo to John Cena pointing out that several
legends including himself and Ricky Steamboat never held the main title for WWE
and that he should respect the legacy of the belt and not help Wade Barrett win
the belt cheaply. This is the way to utilize a legend – used sparingly Piper’s
promo ability still has the ability to hook the viewers and tell the right
story.

WWE Survivor Series accomplished
a buyrate of 244,000.

November 22, 2010

The MIZ GIRL

The Miz cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase to
capture the WWE title. His victory causes one little girl in the audience to
pout – she is captured on camera and becomes the Miz girl. At one time The Miz
tagged up with John Morrison for a successful tag-team run. I always thought
that Morrison was being punished by being shackled to a former reality TV star
like the Miz( MTVs Real World , Road Rules and Tough Enough). But as it stands
right now- John Morrison may up being the Marty Jannetty of the tag team.

WWE Smackdown @ Scope- 11/30/10

-The Show starts with Rey Misterio challenging Alberto Del
Rio to a TLC match- they scuffle- Rey tries to put Alberto thru a table it does
not break- now after a break- Alberto comes out and says he is not done with
Rey and then Rey puts ALberto cleanly thru another table- wonder if this will all
be edited down( note – it was edited down to one confrontation) to Alberto
going cleanly thru one table. LayCool's Layla beat Rosa-
then tried to beat her up- then Hornswoggle made the save- then the Soaring
Eagle came out to challenge Hornswoggle- then Beth Phoenix beat up the Eagle. MVP
and Kaval fought Drew McIntyre and Mr Ziggles-MVP was over with the crowd and
most of the match was peppered with MVP chants. Kofi beat Swagger in a solid
match. Dashing Cody Rhodes beat Chris Masters- at least one girl in my section
LOVED Cody- screaming and cheering for him the whole match. Edge beat Kane-
throughout the show- Edge continued to taunt Kane and destroyed several Paul
Bearer dummies.IN the lone Superstars match - Tyler Rex fought
the remaining Dudebuster-Hawkins came out and was on commentary during the
match and then beat up the Dudebuster even more after the match.

The crowd was very much into Naomi during the NXT
tapings for the web- and booed audibly when Kaitlin won.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 (review written and published in
1997)

Great card from top to bottom – full of energy and humor,
this event kept me and my friends entertained for most of the card. In the main
event , Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hollywood Hulk Hogan wrestled in a cage. Piper
beat Hogan with a sleeperhold, but unfortunately it was not for the belt-after
Hogan lost his n.W.o. cohort Macho Man Savage hand cuffed Piper to the cage and
reportedly paralyzed his face-this action was overshadowed by an overzealous
fan who climbed the cage and tried to attack the wrestlers. Too bad he got
clobbered by the wrestlers. The undercard featured several cool matches- my
favorite was between 5’3” Rey Misterio and heel Eddie Guerrero –the high flying
action was brutal intense and amazing to watch. One the lighter side male
wrestler Disco Inferno lost to female wrestler Miss Jackie.

In the mid-80s , the WWF was the premiere wrestling sanction
in North America. IN 1997, it consistently
gets beaten by the WCW in TV ratings. Even though the WWF product is more in
your face and talks frankly about the competition with WCW, it’s loosing fans
and wrestlers(more on that later). This card except for the 2 main events) was
lacking in energy and pizzaz.

I found myself
bored and exhausted after watching the event and feeling very stupid for
spending money on Survivor Series. Highlights of the card included Goldust
walking out on team USA, Ken Shamrock’s banshee like scream and the hatred and
action betweenShawn Michaels of
Degeneration-X and Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Michaels won the WWF Heavyweight
title by beating Hart with Hart’s signature move- the sharpshooter.

The real story was
after spending his entire career in the WWF and winning 5 heavyweight titles,
Bret Hart has followed Razor Ramon , Diesel , 1-2-3 Kid , Mr. Perfect, Rowdy
Piper and Hulk Hogan to the WCW- et tu Bret?